Thank You for the Aalto Studios Hackathon 2017

Thank You for the Aalto Studios Hackathon 2017

Aalto Studios hackathon took place on 31st of October and brought together great mix of people from different backgrounds. We want to thank all the participants for their contribution!

According to the hackathon organiser, Anna Kholina, the day was very intense, and the teams produced concrete ideas on how to develop Aalto Studios.

The challenges were about community, technologies and collaboration. Aalto Studios wants to find ways on how to break the social bubble in Otaniemi and make sure that we have an impact on every student’s life. As importantly we need to understand how to stay up to date with the rapidly changing technology and how to facilitate new collaboration and support entrepreunership. Read the challenges in full at https://www.facebook.com/events/1904789099848459/.

“It was great to see the teams enjoying the day and really engaging in their work. Especially the pitching session really showed how excited everyone was”, Kholina describes.

The teams came up with interesting ideas such as an interactive community space with white screens from floor to ceiling. This space would create immersive media experiences but also invite people in and to join. Another team suggested a concept they called the New Tech Studio for researching and developing new technology but also for exposing and connecting people to this technology, which is something Aalto Studios can already start implementing. One of the teams encouraged to creating a mayhem and enjoying it. For them, Aalto Studios would be a space for the whole Aalto community to enable the “anything is possible” mindset.

The winner team’s idea really answered the question of how to get students, and outsiders, to share and collaborate. They had created a system called the Diamond Game where students earn diamonds through different forms of learning and get rewarded for their work in a form of a Diamond Project that opens possibilities even for international collaboration with outside companies. The system would enable equality between disciplines and bring together all the students of Aalto University.

The most rewarding parts of the hackathon for the participants were the ideation and teamwork sessions with people they’ve never met before.

“I really enjoyed meeting all these new people and brainstorming together”, says Jasmine Chung from the Diamond team.

“The best part of the day was the creative process with people I had just met. I learned to think very fast and to integrate my way of thinking with other people”, adds Natalia Villaman from another team.

Kholina thinks this kind of concept worked well. She wants to highlight that Aalto studios is very brave to organize a hackathon.

“A definition of hackathon implies breaking something or maybe even critiquing something. Aalto Studios is not afraid to display its vision and letting people basically break into it and to create something new. I’m really excited about this kind of mindset that Aalto Studios has,” she concludes.

What is Aalto Studios?

Aalto Studios is the media center of the future, where teaching, research and product development rise to the challenges of a rapidly evolving digital society.